Transcripts

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BRENDA: When people ask me where I'm from, I say, Minnesota. I am from here. I came from Mexico when I was seven. I was carried over the border. It was nighttime. And I remember the path along the cliffs and a rattlesnake.

I'm 19 now. I live in Minneapolis, with my mom, my stepdad, my older brother and his son, and my little brother, and my sister. I help take care of the little kids. And I work second shift in a factory. I don't have lots of time to be a teenager or have fun.

I had to leave high school a month before graduation, this spring, because my family needed me to help pay bills. And I'm in the kitchen, right now, with my mom helping her cook. And now that we're talking, you know, I just wanted to ask my mom. [SPEAKING SPANISH] "Mommy, I have a question for you. Why did you bring me to the United States?"

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): Because I was a single mother of both of you. And I came here, first, to see how was life over here. She saw a better life for us.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): Maybe not for me, because I had to work, work, work. But she saw a better life for us. She liked that, every day, we used to come home and learn more in English every day at our school.

BRENDA: Instead of me putting the microphone into the pot, and you guys should smell. It smells really good. I love when she cooks this. It's called enchilada. I'm a really bad cook. And she makes fun of me.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): In Mexico, I was a cook.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): And here, I came as a janitor.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): I'm really proud to be. Well, I was, because I'm not working there no more.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA (TRANSLATING): I was always going to my job really happy.

MOTHER: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

BRENDA: Put it in. My mom was one of the 1,200 janitors who lost her job in a quiet paper raid on ABM, a janitorial service company in Minneapolis last year. She didn't have the right papers, so she lost the job she had for 12 years. That had a big effect on our lives.

I want things to change for families like mine. We've been here a long time. We pay taxes. But we're invisible. In March, I took a bus from Minnesota to Washington DC for a big immigration rally. As we walked to the capital mall, Latino [? revelers ?] called out to us, we can't be there. We have to work. But lift up your voices for us.

SPOKESPERSON: Thousands of people have come, here, to the National Mall, to support immigration reform. And they come from all across the country. And they heard a taped message, from President Obama, who reaffirmed his commitment to immigration reform.

BARACK OBAMA: I pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus, this year, on this important issue. You know as well as I do that this won't be easy, and it won't happen overnight. But if we work together, across ethnic, state, and party lines--

BRENDA: I've been waiting for this. And every time, on the news, they say, oh, they're going to start working on immigration reform. But then they say, no, something else came up. So it has to get-- you know, I'm sorry for the word. But like get really crappy, bad jobs. You know, I used to work for this restaurant. And the lady used to make me work long hours and not enough pay.

I mean she had me like a slave. I used to clean tables, take orders, clean dishes, go clean bathrooms, clean the floors, and back again. I think it was a week, and then I told her, I can't do this. I can't. And then she told me, it's OK. It's OK. I'll-- take a break. You know, she gave me a day off. I took it.

She wouldn't answer my calls. She would not answer my calls. And I'm like, OK, well, I didn't get paid. And yes, I did not get paid for working from 4:00 until almost 12 o'clock when she closed the restaurant down. Equalness is everything.

I have a better job now. Some of the things we make at this factory are probably in your home. I make $8.65 an hour, so I can pay some of our bills and send money to support my grandma in Mexico. My dream used to be an FBI agent or a cop. Now, I'm thinking about being a teacher or working with kids.

But to do any of this, I need to finish school. When I quit high school, in May, to go clean offices, I didn't tell anybody. I just left. I recently asked one of my favorite teachers to meet me, at a coffee shop, next to my old school so we could talk. Her name is Vanessa. She's Latina. And somebody I trust.

VANESSA: I think you were funny. You always had a good sense of humor. But I saw sometimes you were sad. And I think sometimes whatever issues were going on, it kind of distracted you from your schoolwork.

BRENDA: Vanessa is right. I tell her I want to come back and finish high school, maybe take classes online. But I don't want to answer other students' questions about why I left.

VANESSA: A lot of students, it's the same thing. And you got to remember that, when they're asking you where have you been, why did you stop coming, it's because they care. They noticed you were gone. So that's a good thing. You don't have to feel bad. You don't have to feel disappointed in yourself. You did what you had to do for you and your family. So now you get to take that step back and say, OK I'm ready to do this again.

BRENDA: I tell her I'm ready.

VANESSA: Come on girl, let's get you an application.

BRENDA: Vanessa tells me to think of what I have accomplished. I do have a. Job I am helping my family. I do have dreams and goals. But a lot of things are up in the air, right now. My mother is marrying my stepdad, who is an American citizen. But to get permanent residency in the United States, my mom might had to return to Mexico for a year.

She will have to bring my infant brother, my little sister, and my nephew, and all of them are American citizens. If I go with her, I can't come back. I don't want to leave. I'm going back to school. And I hope, someday, there will be a better life open to me in the United States.

For Minnesota Public Radio's Youth Radio series, this is Brenda in Minneapolis.